d_taddei2 wrote: lyle6 wrote: d_taddei2 wrote:
Still costs money to overhaul and ship. It's not free, and the amount of equipment sent to Syria now they should have started liberating it by now or what are they waiting for? Israeli airstrikes on the newly brought in equipment? Or to left as sitting ducks for TOW? They have almost three years of stagnation, training, and equipment, without any progress.
If we're talking pure economics you would have to discount Russian expenditures against the potential cost of renting all that prime Med real estate - something that could easily exceed the billions of dollars if it wasn't in Syria's interest to have the Russians invested in the country. And its not as if the Russians are shipping the Syrians top shelf hardware that the costs would be enormous in the first place.
U forgot when Russia back in 2005 already wrote off 73% of Syrian Soviet debt $13.4 billion. So it was already costing Russia money. Also on equipment Russia hasn't just sent old refurbished equipment, it's also sent new equipment such as T-90, TOS, kornet, and upgraded Syrian systems, and then u have to remember everything that Russia has deployed there, and loss of equipment, including russian aircraft, dead russian soldiers, maintenance etc etc and let's not forget all the ammunition that Russia uses and the ammo they supply Syria. And who do u think maintains and supplies parts for Syrian aircraft? Russia does. And no cost can be put on a Russian or Syrian soldiers life. And let's not forget Iranians and civilians.
So let's get ball moving.
When the Islamist terrorist's were set on Syria, the main target was not Syria, the main target was Russia.
The US plan was to destroy Syria through it's Islamist terrorists, this would isolate Lebanon(Hezbollah), than the US Islamist terrorists would destroy Iraq and than these US Islamist terrorists would destabilize Iran, providing a base for Islamist terrorists to start terrorist activities along Russia's borders, in the Central Asian countries and inside Russia itself.
President Putin said to the Russian Duma in 2015 before the Russian campaign began, that if we don't fight the terrorists in Syria, than we will have to fight them in our country.
Yes, Russia has spent money, equipment and lost personnel in Syria, same goes for Iran but had Russia not intervened in Syria, Russia would be fighting these terrorists in their own country and on their borders.
This was the plan all along.
Russia became a target in 2003 when President Putin went after Yukos Oil company and corrupt western backed oligarchs. At that point, the Russians knew that the west was going to come after them.
The Georgia war, Ukraine, Syria and countless other provocations were/are aimed at Russia.
This nonsense that it is costing Russia more to fight terrorists in Syria, than it would cost Russia to fight terrorist's on their borders and inside Russia it self is just nonsense.
Russia wants to run a foreign policy that is not dependent on others and where Russia can make her own decisions.
There is a lot of misinformation in this thread and the Ukraine thread.